LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Federal politics has rarely been so on the nose. Polls suggest voters are deeply disenchanted by the vitriol of the political debate, and the performance of leaders on both sides of the parliamentary divide. Many are harking back to leaders past, as political editor Chris Uhlmann reports.

ANNOUNCER: Please help me welcome Kevin Rudd! Malcolm Turnbull!

(Applause)

CHRIS UHLMANN, REPORTER: Still loved by the mob.

MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: Why don't you two join and establish a new party that can open a new chapter in politics in Australia?

KEVIN RUDD, LABOR MEMBER: Malcolm and I could never agree on the leadership.

(Laughter)

CHRIS UHLMANN: With next week marking the end of the parliamentary year, it's just as unlikely that either of these two will soon return to lead their old parties, because the love of the mob isn't shared by their colleagues.

REPORTER: Do you think that Labor would have better electoral chances if Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister again?

TRISH CROSSIN, LABOR SENATOR: We'll have a great electoral chance under the Prime Ministership of Julia Gillard.

REPORTER: Do you think the Liberal Party would be in a better position or have a better chance at the next election?

CHRIS UHLMANN: There's clearly a fracture between the political class and the public over who is fit to lead, and everyone struggles to remember a time when federal politics was held in such low esteem.

BOB HAWKE, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: I think the media in general have become much more intrusive into the personal and private lives of people in politics, and I think there are a hell of a lot of people of talent - maybe particularly more on the conservative side of politics who say, "What the hell? Why should I subject myself to this?"

CHRIS UHLMANN: John Howard thinks it's a lack of authority born of a leadership coup and a hung parliament.

JOHN HOWARD, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: Because she didn't win the last election in her own right, there's a sense in the community that she doesn't have the authority of an elected prime minister, and I think part of the stalemate you've now got... and it's going to go on until there's an election. When there's an election I promise you this, without trying to predict the outcome: it will be a clear cut result. We won't get another hung parliament.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Research backs the view that public sentiment is running strongly against the current crop of federal politicians. John Scales is managing director of polling company JWS research. Since 2009 he's tracked a decline in the Federal Government's standing in the public's eye - from largely positive to deeply negative territory.

JOHN SCALES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, JWS RESEARCH: Voter disengagement with the Federal Government is at a critical low point. We really are at a turning point in terms of politics in Australia. My particular interpretation on it is that it is to the point of toxicity that the political process is almost broken.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Griffith University Professor A. J. Brown has also been tracking Australian attitudes to its federal system of government since 2008. Over that time, the proportion of Australians who said they were satisfied with the Federal Government fell from 82 per cent to 56.

A. J. BROWN, LAW SCHOOL, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: The consequences of the collapse in confidence in the federal level means that really people are being left with a feeling that they've got nowhere left to turn in terms of who is going to play the leadership role in sorting out our problems.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Focus groups around the nation are telling John Scales that they have "switched off" to politics.

JOHN SCALES: The consistent take out is that the parties are just attacking each other, and when you probe on what's the substance of that attack, they can't tell you.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's tempting to imagine that we live in a particularly bitter age, but vicious personal attacks have always been a part of Australian politics.

One of the most infamous was launched by Country Party leader Earl Page against Robert Menzies in 1939. Page was acting prime minister after the death of Joe Lyons. An the day he was due to hand in his commission and pass the baton to Menzies he stood in Parliament, declared he couldn't work with Menzies, and accused him of "disloyalty" to Lyons and "cowardice" for not serving in the First World War. It's hard from this distance to really appreciate what that accusation meant as the scars of the first war were still livid and the second war loomed.

Pattie Menzies walked out of the public gallery and would never acknowledge Page again. Page's wife never returned to Canberra, and in the nationwide outrage that followed, Menzies' mother weighed in, pointing out that the family had decided sending two sons to the war was enough.

So politics here has always been brutal, but this Parliament irks people more than most - and the leaders are being blamed.

JOHN SCALES: It's a very consistent response we get when we mention federal politics is mocking laughter ,and that goes to both sides of politics. It's consistently described as "comical".

CHRIS UHLMANN: But A. J. Brown says the good news is that people still want to believe.

A. J. BROWN: Most Australian voters are basically optimistic and basically would prefer to trust their political leaders and trust their political system when given the opportunity to do so.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And for some true believers the future lies in the past.